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Time To Get NASty

All homes that have a network should have a Network Attached Storage device (NAS). A NAS is an enclosure with one or more hard drives that resides somewhere on your network. A NAS is a great backup solution and can be configured to automatically backup files, can have multiple drives in a RAID configuration to provide redundancy, and they can contain massive amounts of storage space required by today’s multimedia needs. You can use them to store music, movies,pictures and other data that can be shared with every computer in the house. They can even often be configured to allow you to access this data from outside the home.

So why don’t you have one yet? The cases are cheap and the hard drives are even cheaper. Now is the perfect time to buy. We’ll show you a few examples, so you can decide which solution is best for you.

Network Attached Storage Drives

You’ll want to get a model from a well-known manufacturer, with reliable hard drives you trust to run for a very long time. We like the Western Digital Cavalier Black hard drives, but you can use any make and model your trust. The NAS might already have a drive installed, or you can buy cases that are empty, which allow you to add and swap out drives on the fly. If you have nothing and are one a budget, you might want to start with the self-contained NAS with a single drive. If you have a business or if your home network has data you simply cannot lose, you should invest in a multiple-bay NAS case and configure it for RAID. All of these backup solutions come with detailed instructions on how to set them up. The best part is, these devices are not Operating System specific. Your Mac and Windows computers will have no issue finding and saving data to the NAS device.

Single NAS Drives

Western Digital My Book World Edition 1 TB Network Attached Storage

The Western Digital My Book World Edition 1 TB NAS is an affordable, single-drive solution that is very easy to setup. Plug it into your existing network and instantly have an additional 1TB of storage for the computers in your home. It comes with software, to assist you in backing-up, but we don’t like it. Use something like SyncToy to automatically backup your data.

If you prefer Seagate drives, this Seagate NAS is a great Network Attacked Storage device you can integrate with your home or office network. It also has FTP capabilities and backup software that allows you to save and share your data with anyone on the network.

Multiple Bay NAS

D-Link DNS-323 2-Bay Network Attached Storage Enclosure

The D-link DNS-323 is a very affordable 2-bay case that allows you to quickly add and remove hard drives. It has all of the advantages of the drives above, but you can setup Raid 1, which provides data redundancy. If one drive fails, you do not lose any data. Simply add a new drive and continue backing up to both drives at once. Again, you’ll need to buy hard drives for this, as it is only the case.

Drobo is an industry leader in NAS devices. While it’s a little more expensive than the others, it does have a 5-bay storage array that provides file sharing for the home or office. Drobo FS features automated data protection, dual-drive redundancy, self healing technology. How cool is that? Two drives can fail and you will not lose any data. Just put two new drives back in and your back to normal.

No matter what backup solution you choose, you need to make sure it provides the proper backup solution for you. We like the multiple bay NAS devices, as they will grow with you, and provide data redundancy that’s important for the computers on your network. Let us know what you use or recommend for a NAS if you’re already running one.